OnePlus has been quietly developing its own Android 5.0 Lollipop based ROM for the OnePlus One. Following the controversy with Cyanogen licensing in India, the company had announced that it will be providing an early build to customers, which will replace the Cyanogen OS on their devices. The company has now released an alpha build of the ROM on its forums, and is available to download and flash right now. The ROM looks pretty much identical to stock Android Lollipop on Nexus devices but with a few minor changes, such as the ability to have either onscreen or physical navigation buttons. This is an alpha build so there definitely are bugs, many of which are listed on the forum and others no doubt you'll find while using it. There are also clear instructions on how to install the ROM and the things you need to keep in mind, so make sure you read everything properly and know what you're doing before you take the plunge. Source •...
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Windows Phone users were so happy to finally be able to download magazine-style newsreader Flipboard, that once the app was available (for free) in the Windows Phone Store, they forgot all about the fifteen months they had to wait for it. And now that Flipboard is available for the platform, Windows Phone users certainly don't want to have to worry about bugs preventing them from using the app.
Huawei earlier this month announced the Honor 6 Plus, one of the company’s most advanced smartphones to date. Initially released in China, the Honor 6 Plus is now also available to customers from almost all over the world.
Here's a great way for Android app users to start off the new year. The Amazon Appstore is offering $110 worth of apps for free until Friday, January 2nd. This promotion comes on top of a similar one that Amazon ran during Christmas. A mixture of 33 games and utilities are being given away. Some of the titles include Monopoly, Fruit Ninja, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, Angry Birds Star Wars II, Riptide GP2, AVG AntiVirus PRO Android Security, LYNE, JEFIT Pro, and Pho.to Lab PRO.
According to an SEC Form D that was filed in 2014, messaging app Snapchat recently raised $485 million. More importantly, this latest round of financing, led by Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins, was accomplished at a cool $10 billion valuation for the company. 23 investors took part in the equity sale. Snapchat is known best for its self destructing messages, which disappear ten seconds after being read.
In case you didn’t notice yet, Android 5.0 Lollipop introduced a battery saver mode, which eliminates the need of searching for third party apps that are supposed to help you preserve battery life. Of course, manufacturers like Samsung, LG and HTC have had a similar feature before Lollipop, but it’s great to see this available for each and every device that’s running (or will run) the latest version of Android.
An employee of Best Buy in Crestwood, Missouri was arrested and charged with a class C felony after an investigation revealed that he withheld thousands of dollars’ worth of gift card receipts from customers when they activated their mobile phones.
A tweet from Motorola sent out on Wednesday, revealed that the manufacturer has added a 64GB variant of the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition. This is important because the Moto X is offered without a microSD slot that could have expanded the amount of memory on the device. The 64GB model is a Pure Edition exclusive and costs $100 more than the 32GB variant. That makes the price $599.99 for the 64GB version.
Like anything you read on the internet, always hedge your bets, but chatter on Reddit appears to have confirmed that early 2015 is going to be the beginning of a big push to update a lot of Samsung hardware to Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Hey T-Mobile customers, just a friendly reminder. Starting at 12:01am, the monthly data that you don't use each month is rolled over to the following month as Data Stash begins. The plan is open to those Simple Choice members receiving 3GB or 5GB of data each month. The carrier is even seeding you guys with 10GB of the sweet stuff, so you have something saved up for a rainy day. You'll see those 10GB on your January bill. Keep in mind that until that 10GB of data is used completely, your monthly leftovers won't rollover.
An Apple Pay glitch for which Apple had no fix, was forcing the company to issue replacement phones. Apparently, following a factory reset to an Apple iPhone 6 or Apple iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay users weren't able to add new cards to the mobile payment system. A few pages of threads related to the issue can be read at the Apple Support Communities forum.
A variant of model RM-1062, which we have written about before, has been spotted at the FCC giving up the goods. It might be called the Lumia 1335, a single SIM version of the 1330.
Besides making sure that you get up in time, how would you like to know exactly when your friends get up in the morning? At the same time, you can prove to your pals that you are the early riser that you claim to be. It is all possible with the Sleep Keeker alarm clock app. Besides installing it on your phone, your friends will need to install it as well. Then, using a social network to log into the app, you can see what time your friends awake, and they can see what time you get up.
We have opined about storage on mobile devices in the past, and no one can really claim they do not know about system resources making use of said storage.
It may not be the biggest wireless carrier in the world, but South Korea’s SK Telecom is a force to be reckoned with. The carrier launched the world’s first LTE-Advanced network, with an exclusive LTE-A enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 to use it, over a year-and-a-half ago.
According to an engineer who toils for WordPress by the name of Josh Betz, Touch ID can be "trained" to be more responsive. The secret is to give the scanner more data about your fingerprint. The bottom line is that by following his technique, you can decrease the number of false negatives, and speed up the time it takes Touch ID to verify your identity.
It looks like HTC fans will have a great year in 2015. Jeff Gordon, HTC’s Senior Global Online Communications Manager, today tweeted that the company’s 2015 roadmap will be its “best ever”, including “some huge surprises that will blow you away.” That’s certainly a bold thing to say, and we can hardly wait to see exactly what these surprises are.
This is it: the very last day of 2014! When it comes to smartphones, there was a lot to see and enjoy throughout the year (not that we were expecting anything else). While there may have not been too many surprises regarding flagships, we’re certain that most - if not all - consumers in need of a new smartphone this year did find something to their liking. As such, we’re curious to know which handset maker’s 2014 portfolio our readers liked best.
The people at SwiftKey have put together some interesting information. The company behind the popular third party virtual keyboard app have compiled a list of the most popular phrases found on tweets sent out in 2014. The company added "language from news articles" and used the same algorithm they employ to power SwiftKey's Trending Phrases. That feature scans Twitter and top news stories looking for popular words and topics, which are then added to your SwiftKey vocabulary. Clever, huh?
Huawei saw its smartphone sales rise nearly 33% in 2014, to reach $11.8 billion. The company shipped 75 million smartphones during the year, according to an internal memo written by Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business. Huawei fell short of its target to ship 80 million units for the year, although it did achieve year-over-year growth of 40%. The first half of the year saw Huawei increase shipments by 62% to reach 34.27 million handsets.
Android walks away with the title ‘the most versatile mobile operating system in terms of customization’ in 2014, just as it did in previous years, as the situation has changed little. Android remains the only platform that offers full-on launchers, themes, and live wallpapers.
Hey, folks, welcome to our third installment of "Using various manufacturers' content transfer tools to switch to a new smartphone". What we are doing here is testing the ease of use and functionality of apps, made to help new users copy over all their valuable data from their old handset, to their brand new smartphone. We've already tested how HTC's Transfer Tool and Samsung's Smart Switch deal with the task, so this time around – let's check out the Xperia Transfer.
The exciting year that 2014 was is on the way out, meaning it's time for everyone to do a quick overview of the accomplishments and, inevitably, fails that they have experienced throughout the year. It seems like Huawei isn't missing on the occasion, as an internal year-end memo has obviously been obtained by Reuters, which, in turn, is generously sharing its contents with us.
As we get ready to put 2014 in the history books, one of the notable releases of the year, the Amazon Fire Phone, holds a place in history as a great idea with less than ideal execution, and downright dismal sales performance.
As Xiaomi is expected to kick off 2015 with the unveiling of a new phone, we seem to be receiving leaked photos of the Xiaomi Mi5 almost daily. On Tuesday, we passed along a photo that allegedly showed Xiaomi's next flagship handset in black. This morning, we not only have a new photo that reportedly shows the Mi5 in white, we also have some news about a feature that is rumored to be inside the Mi5.
Sam Sebastian, managing director of Google Canada, is actually happy to see Apple enter the market for mobile payment systems. And he sounds excited about the prospects of the Google rival doing well in the "tap to pay" arena. Although Apple Pay is only available for now on the Apple iPhone 6 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus, it already accounts for half of mobile payments at McDonald's.
The University of Michigan has some new numbers for the American Customer Satisfaction Index, and in a not-so-subtle twist of fate, Samsung has leapt over Apple in the rankings.
Newer smartphone platforms, such as Android One, FirefoxOS and Tizen, are expected to see an increase in sales for 2015. Sales will be driven by first time smartphone buyers seeking to replace a featurephone. Thanks to lower prices for smartphones in emerging markets, featurephones have been losing market share. And handsets powered by the newer platforms are usually entry-level models priced in the $50 to $100 range.
Sony recently released Limited Edition variants of its Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, all three coming with funky designs on their back plates - inspired by the architectures of Berlin, Tokyo, and Warsaw, respectively.
Earlier this year, it seemed that Samsung had wrapped up the annual contest to decide who will provide Apple with the chips for the next iteration of the iPhone. In fact, just a few weeks ago, there was talk that Samsung had already started delivering 14nm A9 samples to Apple. And Sammy's perennial rival for the business, TSMC, will only be able to cut its 16nm wafers in any quantity starting in the second quarter of 2015. Using the 14nm process will allow Samsung to make the A9 chip 20% more powerful, while consuming 35% less battery life than the A8.
Windows Phone has made a lot of progress in just a couple short years, with much thanks to Nokia’s embracing of the platform and working in its hardware finesse to make the Lumia series and extremely capable smartphone, no matter if it is an entry level Lumia 520 or a banner waving Lumia 930.
You never know. You just never know. At CES 2009, Palm introduced the Palm Pre and it looked like the Apple iPhone finally had competition. Android was still a novelty, and webOS looked like an operating system that could captivate smartphone users. But something went awry for Palm between CES and the launch of the Pre. Whether it was the lack of popular apps for the phone, or just lousy marketing by Palm, the Pre never challenged the iPhone. Instead, by November, the Motorola DROID was launched and Androidmania started.
Even though it was only released last week, "The Interview" was the top selling movie for Google Play in 2014. Google also said that the film was tops over at YouTube, as well. No specific sales figure was released by Google, for either site. Sony said that since becoming available on Google Play, YouTube, Xbox Video and Sony's site, the movie has generated $15 million in revenue. On Sunday, Apple started streaming "The Interview" over iTunes.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has made a list of his wireless predictions for 2015. The executive expects 67% of new phones to be sold without a subsidy in 2015, up from 41% sold in that manner this year. T-Mobile was ahead of the field on that change. But Legere says that other improvements instituted by T-Mobile aren't going to be as widely put into play by the other carriers. He still expects overages to be paid by many customers of other carriers, along with ETFs.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has made a list of his wireless predictions for 2015. The executive expects 67% of new phones to be sold without a subsidy in 2015, up from 41% sold in that manner this year. T-Mobile was ahead of the field on that change. But Legere says that other improvements instituted by T-Mobile aren't going to be as widely put into play by the other carriers. He still expects overages to be paid by many customers of other carriers, along with ETFs.
If you're a Windows Phone user, no longer do you have to miss the big game because you're running an errand, shopping, or just merely out of the house. WatchESPN is now available for the platform, and once you authenticate that you're a subscriber to certain satellite and cable television providers, you can take the leading cable sports network wherever you go.
Apple has received a patent for a new stylus or smart pen that will take hand-written texts and drawings and display them on the screen of a device like a smartphone or tablet. This is an accessory that could come in handy in a classroom setting. If a teacher were to use the stylus on a whiteboard in a classroom, an accurate reproduction of the notes could be transmitted to students' tablets.
Before you install an app on your Android phone, you need to give developers certain permissions that allow them to access certain parts of your handset. The developers claim that such access is required in order for their apps to work correctly. Vocativ has put together an infographic showing which Android apps request the most permissions, and which ones specifically want permission to access your phone microphones, contact books, text messages, and call logs.
